6 Walmart Great Value Coffee Creamers, Ranked Worst To Best

Anyone who shops at Walmart (or, realistically, anyone who's even somewhat familiar with Walmart) knows that the store's Great Value brand dominates shelves. From Great Value frozen meals to pantry staples, some shoppers specifically go to the store for Walmart's most iconic brand. Sure, Walmart stocks plenty of name-brand goods on its shelves, but there's no denying the widespread availability of a Great Value product in a given Walmart location — not to mention the unbeatable price.

Refrigerated coffee creamer is one such product that the Great Value brand offers in six distinct flavors: original, Italian sweet crème, vanilla caramel, chocolate caramel, French vanilla, and hazelnut. These are some staple flavors in the world of coffee creamers, but are they actually any good (and, perhaps, more importantly, can these Great Value-brand creamers compete with the name brands)?

These are the questions I set out to answer when ranking each Great Value brand creamer. I purchased all of the flavors, brewed up six cups of coffee, and gave each flavor a taste test to determine which Walmart creamer might be worthy of your morning cup of coffee. Ranking criteria came down largely to exceptional flavor, creaminess, and how much a flavor elevated a cup of coffee or, on the contrary, actually made the cup worse.

For Great Value's original coffee creamer, I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of sweetness or what it would taste like. And, after sampling the creamer in a cup of coffee, I found myself wishing that I could still live in that state of not knowing. Suffice to say, I did not enjoy the original flavor one single bit – based on wanting to un-remember this coffee creamer and the fact that it's coming in dead last place in this ranking.

The biggest issue was that it somehow managed to make my cup of coffee taste worse. Though I am typically a black coffee drinker, I can acknowledge that a black cup of coffee tends to lean on the more acidic and perhaps bitter side of the flavor spectrum, so a nice creamer can help balance that out. This creamer didn't help balance anything, and it somehow made the coffee taste even more bitter and perhaps sour. This one didn't have any added sugar, so it really is meant to act solely as a creamer, no frills or flavors. 

I can't see why anyone would reach for this creamer over a splash of milk or half and half (or any other coffee creamer substitute, for that matter). For that reason alone, this Great Value creamer flavor is an absolute skip in my book.

As someone who generally enjoys vanilla-flavored things and caramel-flavored things, I had reasonably high expectations going into Great Value's vanilla caramel creamer flavor. Or, at the very least, I reasonably assumed that this creamer would hit strongly on both of those flavor notes and just generally taste sweet and pleasant. Unfortunately, this creamer missed the mark a little bit — it was leaps and bounds better than the original flavor, but compared to the other sweetened ones on this list, vanilla caramel stood out as a weak link.

Though there were notes of both vanilla and caramel in this creamer, I found that the two flavors were more so contrasting against each other than working together in harmony. I was also overwhelmed by how watery this tasted right off the bat, instead of being hit with those more desirable creamy notes. Though I can't say that this flavor necessarily tasted bad, I can say with certainty that it's not one I'd reach for again. The vanilla and caramel notes didn't taste cohesive, the creamer was more watery than it was creamy, and ultimately, this creamer bogged down my cup of coffee instead of enhancing it.

I'm a big fan of classic, simple vanilla coffee creamers (in fact, I've covered some of the best vanilla coffee creamers in the past). As such, I went into Great Value's French vanilla creamer flavor with high hopes, though I was left feeling more tepid than anything else.

At the very least, I was grateful that this creamer stuck with one key flavor: vanilla. I can't necessarily say if this creamer flavor boasted that distinct richness that supposedly makes French vanilla different from regular vanilla, but I can at least say the vanilla flavor was strong and sweet. It is hard to beat that distinct warmth and sweetness that vanilla creamer provides in a cup of coffee, and this one delivered on that front. I was let down once again by the wateriness of the creamer as a whole, hence why this one could only reasonably rank so high. Not all of the creamers on this list were watery, and some did indeed pack a distinct creaminess, so I know it's possible from Great Value. But, when it comes to this flavor option, I'd ultimately skip it simply because there are better vanilla creamers on the market.

Though I've never been sure exactly what Italian sweet cream-flavored creamers are going for in terms of specific flavor, I know that there's almost always a cannoli on the packaging, so that's what I envision when I take a sip. And, realistically, the creamer never tastes like a cannoli, but sometimes they do at least taste good — and that latter sentiment is certainly true for Great Value's Italian sweet crème creamer flavor.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of the creamer was not the flavor itself but rather the rich, creamy depth. When I pour creamer into a hot cup of coffee, this one delivered on exactly what I'd expect, which is a hefty dose of creaminess and not wateriness. That creaminess, combined with the sort of nondescript sweet flavor of the creamer, made for a downright tasty addition to my cup of joe. 

It's not the best flavor on this list, because I found it a touch too sweet. Sure, the word sweet is literally in the name of the flavor, but there wasn't much else to this flavor besides being very sweet and creamy. Not bad things for a creamer to be, but there was a couple of flavors that offered a little more complexity overall.

There are plenty of unique coffee creamer flavors out there, and then there are the tried-and-true, ultra-familiar staple flavors. Perhaps the most ubiquitous flavor of creamer out there, besides vanilla, of course, is the humble hazelnut coffee creamer. It's hard to beat the balanced, sweet, rich, and subtly nutty flavor profile that a good hazelnut creamer can offer, but strong emphasis on the "good" part. A lesser creamer wouldn't boast such a balanced flavor profile, but I'm happy to report that Great Value's hazelnut creamer did indeed strike such a balance, earning the second-place slot on this list.

Sometimes flavored creamers don't necessarily taste like their given flavor right off the bat and instead taste overwhelmingly sweet. This was not the case with Great Value's hazelnut creamer, as that distinct nuttiness was apparent right from the get-go. There was some sweetness at play, of course, but it wasn't one that ever tasted cloying or overbearing. This creamer did strike that perfect balance between being nutty, rich, warming, and sweet, and it was most definitely enhanced by a cup of coffee. If I have one small wish coming off of this creamer, it's that it were just a touch bit creamier — but with a flavor this good, I don't have any other complaints.

While I wasn't a huge fan of Great Value's vanilla caramel creamer, the exact opposite could be said about the chocolate caramel flavor. I didn't necessarily have high hopes while trying this flavor, either, but one sip and all of my qualms slipped away. This creamer was downright tasty, hitting perfectly on both chocolate and caramel notes — but instead of those notes contrasting with each other, they effortlessly blended together to form a perfectly balanced, sweet sip.

Indeed, the cohesive chocolate-caramel flavor notes sold me, but there were other successful aspects at play as well. This creamer was the absolute creamiest of all the options on this list, with absolutely no wateriness at play. That creaminess also packed a certain richness that played well with both the chocolate and caramel flavor profiles. Of course, this creamer was sweet, but I didn't find the sweetness cloying or overwhelming. 

Ultimately, if you like chocolate or caramel (or better yet, if you like both at the same time) and you prefer creamers that transform a cup of coffee, this is the Great Value flavor for you. Perfectly sweet, surprisingly balanced, creamy, and rich, the chocolate caramel flavor is one that I'd absolutely reach for when I want to switch things up from my typical cup of joe.

When ranking these Great Value coffee creamer flavors, it's important to note that many of my placements came down to personal preference. That said, I tried to play fair in terms of favoring creamers that were sweet-but-not-too-sweet, creamy, and nicely balanced in flavor. Of course, it was also important that the creamer simply tasted like the flavor it was meant to represent, which is where those like hazelnut and chocolate caramel really shone (and earned second and first place, respectively).

To sample the creamers, I paired each one with the same amount of black coffee. I brewed an 8-ounce cup of plain black coffee and added 3 tablespoons of a given creamer to the cup — a little heavier-handed than I typically would be, but I wanted to make sure that I got a strong sense of the flavor. I sampled each cup/flavor one at a time so I could get a true sense of the flavor without immediately comparing it to another one (or without another flavor too strongly lingering on my taste buds).